The Sports Edit launches crowdfunding campaign

Premium activewear e-tailer, The Sports Edit, has launched a crowdfunding campaign to further accelerate its growth.

The campaign follows 2020 marking the company’s “best year yet,” growing online revenues by 145 percent, despite global economic uncertainty, and the company reported some of its best months in April and May during lockdown.

“The current crisis has accelerated the trend towards physical and mental wellbeing becoming even more central to consumer lifestyles, and as their priorities shift so we’ve seen customers spend more on their activewear than ever before,” explains The Sports Edit founder Nick Paulson-Ellis in a statement.

The crowdfunding target of 650,000 pounds to catalyse further growth was quickly raised on Crowdcube, with more than 700,000 pounds already committed in the first few days, with more than 20 days remaining.

The investment it states will be used for its Q3 Nike launch, as well as customer acquisition and retention, and expanding its brand and product range to improve conversion. In addition, The Sports Edit is looking to add “key hires” in marketing and merchandising.

The aim is to create Europe’s leading multi-brand premium activewear retailer, focussed mainly on the fast-growing womenswear market, which it adds is forecast to grow 7.7 percent per annum to 216 billion US dollars by 2024.

The Sports Edit raises above crowdfunding target in first few days

In Q1 2020, The Sports Edit permanently closed its two physical retail stores, which it states was a “tactical move” for the business to focus on its larger, more scalable e-commerce opportunities, supplemented by partnerships with a number of leading gyms and studios such as Core Collective.

It is this strategy that has allowed The Sports Edit to thrive during lockdown, as it held 3 live IGTV classes per week alongside extended wellness content on its blog. This helped online revenue to grow by 258 percent in April 2020, compared to April 2019, and by 305 percent in May, compared to the year before.

“We’ve prioritised just being genuinely useful to our customers at this extraordinary time, from relevant blog content to free IGTV fitness classes,” added Amie Trewin, The Sports Edit marketing manager. “This has seen sales, traffic and engagement all significantly increase, despite the outbreak.”

To help the company accelerate its growth, it has added former Wiggle chief information officer, Jeff Wollen to its board. Wollen brings with him a wealth of technology enablement, commercial acumen and specific retail and e-commerce expertise having built a career in IT/technology over the past 30 years in both public and private companies, both big and small.

Commenting on joining The Sports Edit, Wollen, said: “I’m delighted to join the Board as TSE continues to grow and scale at pace. I look forward to sharing my experience to help Nick and the team in the next stage of their growth.”

The Sports Edit features more than 50 leading and emerging sportswear brands, including Nike, Girlfriend Collective, On Running, and Alo Yoga, for women and men, and has customers in 77 countries.

Image: The Sports Edit website